roast a foot. Commence the stack as for 
wheat, using only two courses or tiers of 
sheaves on each side ; make it long enough 
to hold the crop and about ten feet in hight. 
Several of my neighbors lost their corn for¬ 
age this fall by stacking it too green. 
Frederick Co., Va. John S. Katku. 
colza, bops, tobacco, ohlfoory and to as a Is. 
In lne region known as the Holders, the 
reclaimed lands protected by dykes, a yield 
of 32 bushels of wheat per acre is obtained, 
and yet there is never produced in Belgium 
a quantity sufficient to meet the wants of its 
population. 
SWITZERLAND. 
The Alpine Republic is about the size of 
New Hampshire and Massachusetts together, 
containing 16,000 square miles, with but 15 
per cent, susceptible of cultivation. Hie 
Alpine region includes 57 per cent, and lias 
an average altitude 8,825 feet. Forests 
occupv It* per cent, of the total area. Largo 
farms'are only seen in the cantons of Berne 
and Luzerne, and the arable lands are mostly 
found between the Jura and the Alps. The 
grain produced fails to furnish the bread 
supply, though it should be remembered that 
50,90(1 strangers reside here a portion of the 
year, and somewhat augment the demand. 
The wine product is 30,000,1)00 gallons, and 
that is Insufficient to maintain the home con* 
sumption of bread. Clieese is exported, but 
the imports of butter are greater than the 
exports. The stock of cuttle U little short of 
one million, very hardy, thrifty some fond 
lies considerably improved, anti 
mala quite productive 
mountain pasture lands are 
BARLEY IN CANADA 
Some weeks ago, under the head of “ Sta¬ 
tistical Stories," we showed that, we had 
imported over § 6 . 000,000 worth of barley dur¬ 
ing the fiscal years of 1872-73. Of couive, the 
bulk of this importation was from Canada, 
A Canadian writer, under date of Nov. 13, 
says Canadian farmers are ge tting §1 to §1.15 
per bushel for their barley almost at their 
own doors, and that immense quantities of 
it are being sent to Oswego und Clin ago. 
This writer adds : 
How is it that we grow such good barley, 
that it finds a ready market on the other side 
of the line at remunerative prices ? One 
would think American farmers would be 
glad to grow such a profitable crop. But, it 
seems they c i .mot do it ; not from any fail¬ 
ure in the soil or climate, but simply that 
they will not take the trouble to give clean 
culture to their soils. It is impossible to 
raise a good crop of barley unless the soil, in 
addition to being moderately rich, ia also 
thoroughly cultivated and freed from weeds 
mid grass. The great bulk of our barley is 
sown on laud that has been in roots of Borne 
kind, well manured the previous year, or on 
old sod Thai lias been thoroughly rot fed by 
growing a crop of peat upon it and then fol¬ 
lowing with a fall fallow. 
What the writer says of the Importance 
of clean land in barley culture is true. There 
is no difficulty, however, in growing good 
crops of good barley in the States. We know’ 
this by experience. A rich, clean, loam soil, 
well pulverized, will produce a large crop of 
barley. What is said by this Canadian con¬ 
cerning clean culture applies equally to 
wheat and other small grain crops where 
the best results are sought. There is no good 
reason why the United States should import 
a bushel of barley. There is no »eu«c* in grow¬ 
ing corn at 10 to 20 cents per bushel and 
neglecting barley, which will bring from 50 
cents to §1 per bushel. Wo commend the 
subject to the attention of <>ur agriculturists. 
CAMPBELL'S LATE ROSE POTATO 
Last April I planted, on one lot, three- i 
fourths of a barrel of Campbell’ - Late Rose 
potatoes ; cut them to one eye ; planted 
them in hills, throe feet apart each way, on 
land that was in potatoes the year before 
and in corn year before that. 1 put one hand¬ 
ful of Squankum marl in each hill. We 
had no rain for two months duriug the early 
part of the season, and potatoes sii tiered 
very much, but the vines kept green. They 
did not Ret until very late. They were dug 
in October and yielded 151 barrels. On an¬ 
other lot 1 planted two barrels of seed, in 
rows 8 feet by IS inches, on land that was in 
grass year before. I put one handful of 
ashes to four hills after they were up. and 
they yielded 210 bauds. On another lot of 
10 acres, with a handful of marl in a hill, 
they yielded 050 barrels, planted iu rows 
3 feet by 18 inches. 1 used about one barrel 
of seed per acre on this lot. I have grown 
this season 1,800 barrels of Campbell’s Late 
Hose potatoes. They will yield, with ordi¬ 
nary farm culture, over 100 barrels per acre. 
Several of my neighbors have grown, the 
past, season, from 80 to 105 barrels from one 
barrel of seed. 1_>. Auos. Vanmsrvjsek. 
d many nm- 
ili the dairy. The 
_ j _| _ divided into 
tracts known as nlpnye «, 4,550 ill number, of 
which 51 per cent, are owned by individuals, 
.83 per cent, by communes, 0 per cent, by 
corporations, and a few by the state. About 
150,4)00 milk cows are pastured, six acres 
being required for each cow, and a large 
number of other cattle are kept in these 
elevated pastures. The agricultural resources 
of Switzerland bear no comparison naturally 
with those of Colorado, or almost any equal 
portion of the Rocky Mountain region, not¬ 
withstanding the aridity of our great moun¬ 
tain areas. The abruptness of declivitous 
surfaces, and the poverty of the soil, in large 
portions of Switzerland, are in marked con¬ 
trast to the surfaces and soils of our moun¬ 
tain domain. 
GERMANY. 
The German Empire exhibits to the world 
a miracle of industry and thrift iu agricul¬ 
ture. The northern portion, from Berlin 
northward, is naturally little better than a 
desert of sand, and southward the improve¬ 
ment is small and slow until the neighbor¬ 
hood of Dresden is reached, Saxony and Bar 
varia are the most fertile provinces. Grains, 
potatoes, sugar beets, forage roots, yield 
abundant returns for the puiicnf. labor and 
constant fertilization required ; wheat does 
not equul the yield of England, being at the 
rate of 17.1 bushels per acre, yet the wonder 
is that so large a product can be secured. The 
latest average for rye is 10.7 bushels; for 
oats, 82.it bushels. A‘> iu Great. Britain and 
other countries there is a marked tendency 
to improvement of stock and the Increase 
of meat supplies. Formerly, wool was para¬ 
mount in sheep husbandry, mutton being al¬ 
together subordinate. The original families 
of Spanish meriuoos became founders of a 
new order of ovine nobility, the Electoral in 
Saxony, the Negretti in Medhlenburg, and 
the Electoral and Negretti in Silesia, which 
became famous throughout the world, ulti¬ 
mately supplying an extensive demand from 
Australia, from South Africa and South 
America, aud a more limited demand from 
the United States, where the American 
breeders of the same Spauish families com¬ 
manded the preference of a large majority of 
wool growers. Now t he production of fine 
wool is declining in Germany, and l be South 
Downs and Leicester^ of Great Britain are 
eagerl 3 r sought. The present numbers arc 
reported officially at 00 , 0011 , 000 , of which 
about 14,000,000 are merinocs aud other 
grades, 7,000,001) of pure or partial English 
blood, anil 8,000,000 of native races. The 
wool production is estimated at ISO,000,000 
pounds. It is found that the mutton breeds 
are more profitable on the best, lands and in 
the densest populations, while in regions re¬ 
mote from market und sparse in population 
the merino still maintains ite former sway. 
The cultivation of the vine has become an 
extensive rural industry in Germany, requir¬ 
ing the use of 360,000 acres in viueyar s in 
Saxony, Bavaria, the Rhine and Moselle Val ¬ 
leys, and other portions of Southern and 
Western Germany, The business is charac¬ 
terized by increasing care, better culture, 
and superior skill. New’ varieties have been 
introduced, und improvements in the manu¬ 
facture and t reatment of wine, in Bavaria 
the practice of setting vineyards with poles 
and wires has obtained to a considerable 
extent 
Flax and hemp are prominent products in 
Silesia, Westphalia, Hanover and the Rhine 
Provinces ; and hemp is grown extensively 
in Baden and Alsace. Foreign llaxseed is 
chiefly used, and the home manufacture re¬ 
quires an import of foreign Hax. Recent 
improvements in machinery for preparing 
the fiber are giving an impetus to the busi¬ 
ness. Tobacco is a profitable crop in some 
sections ; at Pfalz a tobacco of peculiar char¬ 
acter is grown, valuable for w rappers, to 
the extent of more than fib ,0011 acres, yielding 
abuut 11 cw’t. per acre. Hops are grown 
largely in Bavaria, Hesse, Posen, Brunswick 
arid Baden. Between 1850 and I860 the busi¬ 
ness was extended too rapidly, resulting iu 
low prices follow ed by a temporary cheek iu 
production, which is now increasing again. 
The practice of training the vines on wires 
has become very general. 
Diffigeuee, patient persistence, a gradual 
but steady march of improvement, appear 
to characterise every department of German 
agriculture.—[Conclusion next week. 
been about 10 per cent, in 20 years, not m 
product, but in acreage, the yield laving 
increased 1 ’ bushels, and 5 bushels in 100 
years, being now 28 bushels, the largest 
national average. The supremacy of turnips 
has therefore not weakened in the least, and 
the importance of sheep, which suffered some 
decline during the area. Of low’ prices for 
wool in 18/-,*, is now steadily advancing. 
There are now aljvTiit. 38,000,000 sheep to 
30,000,000 acres of productive area. It was 
recently assumed, on good grounds, that one- 
fourtn of the cattle were annually sold, at 
l Lie rate of £lft eanh in EaghUld, .fill in Scot¬ 
land, aud fill! in Ireland ; that, one-third of 
the English sheep and one-fourth of the 
Scott.sh'arc annually sold at about 35 shil¬ 
lings each, The tendency has since been to 
still higher prices. Not only is the p-i por¬ 
tion of stock large, both to area and popula¬ 
tion, but the extra sizo of animals and extra 
feeding contribute both quantity and quality 
to home resources of fertilization, and afford 
a valid reason for enlarged production. 
HOLLAND. 
Holland, not including the Zuyder Zee, has 
an area of 3.287,488 hectares, or 8,123,0915 
acres; with it 2,818,529 hectares. It has a 
population of 8.500,000, constantly becoming 
denser, having increased ten per cent, in ten 
years. Of this number 218,115 men and 
115,781) women are actively employed in agri¬ 
culture. Nearly four-tenths of this area is 
occupied in ] nwturage und fodder production, 
showing the prominence of meat* butter, 
in the farm economy of the country. The 
t illed area is about 25 per cent, of the total. 
The cereal production last reported was 
about, ft, 000 .W bushels of oats nearly as 
lunch of rye, and 1,500,000 bushels of wheat. 
The cattle arc the best meat producers of 
continental Europe, and iu the Hooks runs 
the best blood of English mutton breeds. In 
dll tba Operations of the dairy, and of the 
farm f«s well, the extreme of neatness is the 
rule. The soil itself, originally a waste of 
s;uid, has been reclaimed by patient labor, a 
part of it literally from the domain of Nep¬ 
tune and kept in generous productiveness by 
a liberal application of fertilizers : and now 
it is proposed to drain the Zuyder Zee au 
area of 1.250,000 acres, and transform its bed 
inti > fruit fill fields, at an expense almost equal 
to the cost ol construction of our completed 
Pacific Railroad line. 
BELGIUM. 
The area of this country is equivalent to 
7,278,040 acres, of which 0.533,400 are pro¬ 
ductive, less t han ten per cent, being unculti¬ 
vated. The population average 448 to the 
square mile. The largest principles and pro¬ 
cesses of culture have been adopted, and 
agricultural implements and machinery are 
extensively employed, by co-operation and 
hire, when too expensive for individual own¬ 
ership ; and the prevalent economy of fertil¬ 
ization is suggestive of Chinese practice, 
AGRICULTURE IN THE OLD WORLD. 
AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE RURAL CLUB OF NEW YORK, BY 
J. R. DODGE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
It would be presumption in me, after a 
hasty glance at the Helds and v ineyards of a 
few of the countries of Europe to attempt a 
portrayal of even the prominent features of 
European agriculture. 1 will only indicate 
briefly the leading impressions received, sup¬ 
ported by a few illustrative facts. Nor do 1 
care to indulge in the egotism of personal 
adventure or details of rural description, 
preferring, as the theme is so broad and the 
time so short, to epitomize a few of the dom¬ 
inating facts which Illustrate the variety, the 
extent and the prevailing tendency of rural 
production, even at the risk of heaviness 
from the gravity of a freightage of statistics. 
As no time American comes in contact with 
the civilization, the institutions, the polities 
of Europe, without brightening his patriotism 
and intensifying his appreciation of home 
capabilities and attainments, so a view of 
European agriculture, ripe with the fruitage 
of lime and effort,though almost everywhere 
displaying parasitic and injurious growth of 
the fungus of feudalism, only brings into 
favorable contrast our own agriculture, 
superior already iu the fitness of its mechan¬ 
ism, and iu the intelligence of its labor, as in 
the fertility of its lands, and in the range of 
its production. While so much mat’ be said 
of the present., it belongs to the future to 
refine what is crude, to systematize what is 
chaotic, to perfect what is primitive. A 
statistic/d glance at the conditions and results 
of agricultural labor in several nationalities, 
will render more intelligent an attempt to 
compare the status of agriculture of one 
country with that of another or our own. 
GREAT BRITAIN. 
England, Scotland and Wales, known to¬ 
gether as Great Britain, a manufacturing 
and commercial country, in which but six 
per cent, of the population are actually em¬ 
ployed in agriculture, furnish an example of 
the cleanest culture, the most rational pro¬ 
cesses, the most extensive use of money in 
permanent improvements and in fertiliza¬ 
tion, and the highest rate of production 
known to the industry of Europe and of the 
world. In some of these respects Holland is 
only exceeded -lightly, if at all. While the 
land is held too tightly in the dutches of the 
dr-ad and of the titled living. It is gratifying 
to see that the people are wresting to their 
own use eveu the smallest parcels of it. 
While, according to the official enumeration 
of 1S70, only 45 per cent, of the “holdings" 
or farms exceed 30 acres each, they occupied 
91 per cent, of t he total area returned ; 38 
per cent, occupied 30 to 100 acres each, and 
IS per cent, above 100 acres each. In 1871 
the area cultivated in holdings Horn one- 
tourtli of an acre to 20 acres, was but 1,897,- 
000 acres, out of 80,833,090, ur six per cent.; 
but they curried 11 per cent. o£ the cattle of 
the country, and 25 per cent, of the swine. 
It was found in 137.3 that there were 09,344 
holdings of one-fourth of an acre to an acre 
iu extents of which 07,422 were in England, 
and of that number ,9,000 were allotments 
held by agricultural laborers and working- 
C0MPT0N SURPRISE POTATO 
I have just been much amused wlule read¬ 
ing Mr. Nash’s report on the Compton Sur¬ 
prise potato. If I should pinch our cat's tail 
she wouldn’t, get up her back any higher, if 
she did as high, as friend Nash did about his 
Compton's ! Now for my Compton's. I 
bought §3 worth of the Compton's, put up 
in a nice little srniare box, brought them 
home, showed them to my wife, who was a 
a city girl, and of course don’t know much 
about potatoes. She thought they were 
nice looking potatoes, but cost an awful 
price. “ Why,” said she, “I could buy two 
pair of Alexander’s best, kid gloves for what 
you paid for that little box with only three 
potatoes in it !’’ lent up my potatoes, (dilut¬ 
ed them in hills, one eye in a hill, and 1 Llnnk 
I had 43 hills. I had them dug about the 
last of October, aud I have got a good half 
bushel of large, smooth, fine-looking (iota- 
toes, which I am going to keep for seed for 
next year. 
My wife is sitting at the sewing machine, 
hemming a ruffle to go on our little daugh¬ 
ter’s party dress while lam writing this; 
and although she don’t pretend to know 
much about raising potatoes, she says she 
thinks friend Nash aud the others dug their 
Comptons too early ; I think my better half 
is about right. Hoping, Mr. Editor, you will 
give this place iu that valuable paper of 
yours, which ought to be in every house in 
the United States, I am very truly yours, 
N. W. Pike. 
SOWED CORN FOR WINTER FORAGE 
I TnoFGHT I would attempt to answer 
some questions asked on page 2S4, No. IS of 
Rural New-Yorker, about the use. of sowed 
corn for winter forage. I have used it, and 
shall be obliged to depend almost entirely 
upon it this winter for forage. First, Flow 
the land and harrow it. as for planted corn. 
Second, Sow or drill a bushel or a bushel 
and a half to the acre, according to quality 
of soil, on poor land ; it should not be sown 
so thick that it will not blossom. Third, It 
should not be cut until the little ears found 
here and there through the field /ire quite 
hard ; after it lias wilted a little it should be 
tied iu bundles, each about six <>r eight inches 
through at the baud. Shock it as you would 
wheat, tying it very tight at the top. It 
should remain in the shook for six or eight 
weeks, or until the stem is thoroughly dried ; 
for if i t is stacked before the stems are cured, 
even if t he loaves are dry, (as they will dry 
in two or three weeks,) the stack will become 
a first-class hotbed, that will cook an egg or 
